First aid kit - needs more stuff

[kgd]

I had a 1 week field work session last week and as always had my first aid/PSK kit on hand with me. The kit I carry is one of those Adventure medical nylon bag kits and I have mine stuffed to the brim with survival items (firesteel + fatwood, bic lighter, SAK, sewing kit, fishing kit, paracord etc) along with first aid items.

Anyhow, I did give myself a rather nasty cut on the tip of my finger that could have used a stitch or two. However, I wasn't too concerned with it and opted to self treat it. I had everything I needed to do so in the first aid kit. After I managed to get the bleeding to stop (and dang that was a lot of bleeding), I washed it out and treated it with iodine and bandaged it up.

However, I still had 4 days of field work to do. One of the things I started to run-out of in my field kit was additional disinfectant and band aides for daily follow up - removing and replacing the band aide (due to dirt and wet) and disinfecting with more iodine. I started having to conserve those little iodine packets (the square foil lined packets) to ensure I had enough supply. I also started running out of band aides, because of all the other little cuts and scrapes (more minor than my finger but still needing care) realized over the week.

This got me re-thinking the kit somewhat. My kit was good for the initial trauma, but not so good for routine maintenance and care or cummualtive injuries over the week. Those little iodine packets are handy but 1) they usually give you more iodine than you need in a single application and 2) they aren't easy to keep for re-use.

So my kit needs more band aids - quite a bit more and I think I will ditch the iodine packets for a tube of polysporin. However - I will have to pull something out to get the tube in there. I probably should have taken the bigger kit with me for our base camp.

Has anyone else run out of items in their kit - just because they needed to use them commonly enough and started to exhaust supplies? If so, what were those items?

 

[siguy]

i use a roll of cloth medical tape for all of my cuts that won't stop bleeding within a few minutes, or even those that i know i will catch and scrape on every little thing that will cause pain and re-opening. a roll of tape lasts for quite a long time, and is good for plenty of other applications too.

a tube of superglue (plastic bottle is better than the foil tubes) is really great, i like zap-a-gap for plugging cuts and scrapes, or areas where you are starting to callus.

a tube of polysporin is a good idea instead of the iodine packets.

i used to carry a little first aid kit with me, alcohol swabs like for shots, a few bandaids of each size ( from 1/4" square pads to 1" square gauze pads), and some basic pills like aspirin and decongestant. i found that not only was it tricky getting into the kit to use it when i needed (often without one hand so i wouln't bleed in my kit) but it was even harder keeping the stuff from blowing away in the wind and then getting it back into the case. so i switched to larger, bulkier items (superglue and tape) and haven't had any problems yet.

 

[kamkazmoto]

I carry a couple of sanitary napkins in my first aid kit. First in case my family needs it and second because it's a great absorbent material for cuts that bleed a lot.

 

[Any Cal.]

In my bag, which is not pocket size, I keep finger cots. They are small, don't weigh much, and can keep fingers covered and dry. They are good for guys with rifles too to keep mud/snow out of the muzzle. They are "supposed" to be shoot through.

The thing I ran out of in my kit was moleskin. Now I carry a couple sheets. Those are not that big though. I also stick a partial roll of medical tape in my kit. I prefer it to band-aids for many things, esp. paired up w/ toilet paper or piece of cloth.